If you’ve made it this far, you already have three items or “things” completed of the twenty three that are required to earn the USB MP3 player (not to mention qualify for the laptop drawing).
But how do you qualify? Good question! By registering your blog and recording your progress on each of the 23 things. For the sake of simplifying this process for LTS staff involved, you will use the Learning 2.0-Tracking Your Progress Form that has been created on the Western Libraries staff intranet.
To use this log, simply access the Form and fill it in with: your email (which results in a message being sent to you for your own records), date completed, exercise completed (from a drop down window), and the url of each blog entry (beginning with Thing #2) capturing your thoughts, comments or findings about your discovery process.
So, here’s to Thing #4 – why not hop on over to the Form now and record your first 4 items on this discovery quest (the word "Done" will suffice for the first exercise) . It’s really that easy and just think, now there’s only 19 more things to go. :)
Don't forget to blog about "how this discovering journey is going thus far."
A technical note: since we will be tracking via the blog urls, be sure to create a separate entry for each exercise, therby guarenteeing a unique url for each.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...
One more message to listen to:
Wow! Congratulations!! You’ve reached the 23rd "thing". Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program. Your reward for completing this journey is a useful and handy USB MP3 player. But before sending this off you, I ask for one last discovery post.
For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...
* What were your favourite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
* How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
* Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
* What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
And last but not least…
* If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again choose to participate?
In closing, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this journey. My greatest hope is that this not the end of our learning journey together as a staff and a system, but rather that it’s just the start of something amazing …
Thank you
Wow! Congratulations!! You’ve reached the 23rd "thing". Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program. Your reward for completing this journey is a useful and handy USB MP3 player. But before sending this off you, I ask for one last discovery post.
For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...
* What were your favourite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
* How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
* Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
* What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
And last but not least…
* If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again choose to participate?
In closing, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this journey. My greatest hope is that this not the end of our learning journey together as a staff and a system, but rather that it’s just the start of something amazing …
Thank you
Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")
With your new MP3 player right around the corner, it’s time to take a look around the web and find some downloadable eAudiobooks.
For this exercise and the last you will have an opportunity to hear a podcast from a voice with a little less southern twang!
Downloadable eAudiobooks are quite popular. Once loaded into your new MP3 player, you can enjoy "reading" on the bus, or on the train, or in your car.
For this discovery exercise, you merely need to familiarize yourself a bit with the structure of Downloadable eAudiobooks and get an idea of the types of titles you can find here. Take a look around and locate a few titles of interest. That MP3 player is right around the corner and once you have it, you’ll definitely have a reason to try out this popular library service.
Discovery Resources:
1. Gutenberg Books
2. Free e-books
3. The online books page
Discovery Exercise:
1. Click on the links provided above and explore some of the myriad of titles.
2. Create a blog post about your findings. Did you locate a title that you might want to try out and download once you have your MP3 player?
OPTIONAL: Try downloading a title from one of the resources. You don’t have to have a portable player to listen to audiobooks, you can also listen to it from a computer.
For this exercise and the last you will have an opportunity to hear a podcast from a voice with a little less southern twang!
Downloadable eAudiobooks are quite popular. Once loaded into your new MP3 player, you can enjoy "reading" on the bus, or on the train, or in your car.
For this discovery exercise, you merely need to familiarize yourself a bit with the structure of Downloadable eAudiobooks and get an idea of the types of titles you can find here. Take a look around and locate a few titles of interest. That MP3 player is right around the corner and once you have it, you’ll definitely have a reason to try out this popular library service.
Discovery Resources:
1. Gutenberg Books
2. Free e-books
3. The online books page
Discovery Exercise:
1. Click on the links provided above and explore some of the myriad of titles.
2. Create a blog post about your findings. Did you locate a title that you might want to try out and download once you have your MP3 player?
OPTIONAL: Try downloading a title from one of the resources. You don’t have to have a portable player to listen to audiobooks, you can also listen to it from a computer.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
#2 Lifelong Learning
Listen to this podcast [1:31]-->powered by ODEO
Among libraries, lifelong learning is one of those core values we shelve our books by. So it makes sense that before we embark on this new online learning and discovery journey that we should take a few minutes to review a few habits that can assist in creating lifelong learners.
These habits, which we’ve called the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, will provide you with a refresher on what it means to be a lifelong learner.
Discovery Exercise:
1. Make sure you have headphones or speakers attached to your computer.
2. Open up the 7 & 1/2 Habits online tutorial and view the online tutorial.
3. As you watch and listen, write down which habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is easiest for you and which is hardest. You will use your personal blog (which you will set up next) to post your thoughts about lifelong learning.
Have fun! If you haven't jumped on board yet, it's never too late to become a lifelong learner.
PS: Sorry for the discrepancy between the podcast and online tutorial. The tutorial is actually 14 minutes. In the final preparation of the tutorial, there was just too much information to cut it down. :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Up: Creating your blog so you can begin tracking your journey. Several staff have already taken a jump start on this activity, so if you're up to it why not join the early bird crowd.
#1 Discovery has never been so much fun ...
Listen to this podcast [1:53]-->powered by ODEO
Welcome to Library Technical Services' Learning 2.0 program & blog. Chances are if you've found your way here you're either:
1. A member of LTS staff who's participating in the Learning 2.0 Challenge.
2. Interested in learning about and playing around (yes, playing is allowed in libraries) with some new web 2.0 tools that will help you expand your information literacy toolbox.
- or -
3. Are just interested in earning a way cool USB MP3.
Either way… I'm glad you're here!!
Learning 2.0 is online learning program that encourages staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.
Over the course of the next nine weeks, this website will highlight “23 Things” and discovery exercises to help staff become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.
So fasten your seat belts, grab your mouse and get ready for a discovery adventure… and remember, it's OK to play in the library and have fun!
Listen to this podcast [1:53]-->powered by ODEO
Welcome to Library Technical Services' Learning 2.0 program & blog. Chances are if you've found your way here you're either:
1. A member of LTS staff who's participating in the Learning 2.0 Challenge.
2. Interested in learning about and playing around (yes, playing is allowed in libraries) with some new web 2.0 tools that will help you expand your information literacy toolbox.
- or -
3. Are just interested in earning a way cool USB MP3.
Either way… I'm glad you're here!!
Learning 2.0 is online learning program that encourages staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.
Over the course of the next nine weeks, this website will highlight “23 Things” and discovery exercises to help staff become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.
So fasten your seat belts, grab your mouse and get ready for a discovery adventure… and remember, it's OK to play in the library and have fun!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Audiopoding, can you hear me now? : Learning 2.0
Listen to this podcast [2:17]-->powered by ODEO
The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS, which we explored way back when.
In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last 24 months, it's easy to see why.
Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.
iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.
For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.
Discovery Resources:
* To find out more about podcasts start with Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial
* There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just two of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:
o Podcast.com
o Podcastalley.com
* What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too?
(Optional Resources for those who want to learn create podcasts)
o Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
o Beginner's guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
o How to podcast tutorial
Discovery Exercise:
1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS, which we explored way back when.
In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last 24 months, it's easy to see why.
Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.
iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.
For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.
Discovery Resources:
* To find out more about podcasts start with Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial
* There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just two of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:
o Podcast.com
o Podcastalley.com
* What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too?
(Optional Resources for those who want to learn create podcasts)
o Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
o Beginner's guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
o How to podcast tutorial
Discovery Exercise:
1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
YouTubing is like Snowboarding! : Learning 2.0
Listen to this podcast [1:58]-->powered by ODEO
Online video hosting sites have exploded in the past few years allowing users to upload and share videos easily on the web. We have even been able to view political uprisings in far off countries, much to the chagrin of those in charge. Among all the web 2.0 players in this area, YouTube is currently top dog serving up over 1 million video views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily.
Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and 60s music videos to library dominos . Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer. :)
Discovery Exercise:
NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light internet usage times.
Online video hosting sites have exploded in the past few years allowing users to upload and share videos easily on the web. We have even been able to view political uprisings in far off countries, much to the chagrin of those in charge. Among all the web 2.0 players in this area, YouTube is currently top dog serving up over 1 million video views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily.
Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and 60s music videos to library dominos . Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer. :)
Discovery Exercise:
- Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
- Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?
OPTIONAL: Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code for the "Embeddable Player.” This is easiest if you create an account in YouTube. Each video you watch (while logged into your account) has an "EMBED" link over to the right in the grey box. Simply copy that coding and paste it into your blog using the Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting this code. Be forewarned, your text and all the commands will show up in HTML. Just find the right place for it and paste it in!.
NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light internet usage times.
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